Beehive

Beehive (蜂の巣 Hachi no su) is the third story in Flesh-Colored Horror. It was originally published in Monthly Halloween in May 1991.

Plot

Takano and his girlfriend, Yoriko, are walking alone one day. Yoriko remarks that Takano hasn't talked about bees lately and he tells her that he has other things to do than collecting beehives. While stopping to kiss Yoriko, Takano sees a wasp and heads off to follow it to its hive. However, Takano notices the wasp is going into the woods and decides not to follow it. Yoriko asks him what's wrong, but Takano attempts to change the subject. Yoriko asks him if he's afraid of the ghost in the woods. Takano doesn't know what she's talking about and Yoriko explains that the weird boy that wandered around the neighborhood has been missing for a while.

Takano then flashbacks to sometime before. Yoriko and her mother find a wasp nest on the side of their house. Their neighbor tells them about a strange boy that can remove infested wasp nests with just his bare hands and not get stung. As the two women talk, Yoriko meets Takano, who asks if he can take the hive. Yoriko's mother says yes and he tells her he'll be back that night, since wasps are more active during the day. However, the strange boy arrives, asking if he can take the hive. Yoriko tells the boy that Takano will take care of it, but the boy says that he can take the hive without killing the wasps. He then says that the neighborhood used to be a forest, but it was cut down, so the wasps are making nests where they can.

Minutes later, the boy cuts the hive down from the house. He then leaves with the nest. Agitated, Takano decides to follow him. He tells the boy that he found that nest first and that he should have it. The boy refuses, saying that he's saving the nests from people like Takano and that wasps are his friends. When Takano touches the boy's shoulder, the wasps from the nest emerge and start attacking Takano. Yoriko arrives just in time and saves Takano, who notices that the boy ran off. He and Yoriko introduce themselves and Yoriko mentions that she's just been in the neighborhood for three months. Takano asks to be friends, then runs off.

Later on, Yoriko wanders into the woods and finds Takano, who is luring bees with tuna and then following them to their nests. He and Yoriko follow the bee to a cave, where they find that the buzzing is very loud. Takano then finds the boy, who is feeding the bees and wasps a dead frog. Takano wonders how the different species can get along so well and that the boy has many different nests in the cave. Takano leaves, telling Yoriko the nest was smaller than he thought.

Back in the present, Yoriko marvels over Takano's new hives. She then starts talking about the boy again, saying that she believes he was murdered.

That night, Takano wanders into the woods with a shovel. It turns out that he went back to the cave and strangled the boy to death the day he discovered it. While digging for a new hive he found, he's seen by two men patrolling the woods. He hurridly digs up the hive, which is stuck on a root. Takano makes it home and finds his hands covered in blood.

The next day, Yoriko excitedly tells Takano that the missing boy's body was found decapitated by hunters, who also saw someone run away with the head. Nervous, Takano shuts the door and goes to his hive collection. The new hive is seeping blood. When he cracks open the hive, he discovers the boy's head inside. It turns out the boy was still alive after all and the wasps built a hive around his head. Then, they would take food to him to keep him alive. It wasn't until Takano decapitated him with the shovel that the boy died.

Suddenly, hornets fill the room and attack Takano. He's rendered paralyzed by their attack and in the end, the bees make meatballs from his flesh and begin to repair the hive.